Dodek: Here's a history lesson for the electoral reform committee

This summer, members of the Special Committee on Electoral Reform may be visiting a location near you. The committee’s mandate is to identify and study viable alternative voting systems to replace our current first-past-the-post system, as well as to examine mandatory voting and online voting. It has been quietly hearing from experts over the summer while Canadians have their minds on other things such as the cottage, the weather, and the Olympics.

The success or failure of the special committee and the Trudeau government’s still unclear electoral reform project may hinge on the committee’s ability to work together across party lines, at least on some key issues. If it does not, the committee’s report may find its way into the dustbin of political history, which is already littered with reports of special committees who failed to live up to their grand titles.

However, the Special Committee on Electoral Reform can learn some lessons from another special committee. For this, we must go back in time to a summer more than 35 years ago.

In the summer of 1980, Canadians were also watching the Olympics but there were no Canadians competing because most western countries had boycotted the Moscow games to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Parliament had only just recognized O’ Canada as the official national anthem. And in May, the “No” forces had soundly defeated the proponents of sovereignty-association in the first Quebec referendum. There was also a vigorous and (re)vitalized Trudeau in office.

And so, fresh from his victory in the Quebec referendum, Pierre Trudeau pressed forward with his plan to patriate the Constitution with a charter of rights and freedoms. With most of the provincial premiers stubbornly refusing to get on board, Trudeau proceeded with a strategy to forge ahead unilaterally, without their support.

Part of this plan was to use a special committee of the Senate and the House of Commons. On Oct. 2, 1980, Pierre Trudeau made a nationally televised address to announce his constitutional plan. Later that month, the Senate and the Commons struck the Special Joint Committee of the Senate and the House of Commons on the Constitution.

The Liberals maintained a clear majority on that committee of 25, consisting of 15 MPs and 10 senators. The opposition Progressive Conservatives and NDP put some of their best parliamentarians on the committee. For the Tories, this included former cabinet ministers Perrin Beatty, David Crombie, Jake Epp, John Fraser and James McGrath. The NDP’s two sole representatives were MPs Lorne Nystrom and Svend Robinson. The special joint committee was co-chaired by Sen. Harry Hays of Calgary and a brash, young, rebellious MP from Quebec named Serge Joyal – the same Serge Joyal who is now one of the staunchest advocates for the Senate in the red chamber.

The Liberals’ wanted the committee to be a limited, tightly controlled affair. It would not travel, it would only work for a month or so and its proceedings would not be televised. The plan was essentially for the government to use the committee to get the constitutional reform issue out of the House of Commons and out of the glare of journalists.

But then a funny thing happened. The committee started to take on a life of its own and the Liberals compromised on a number of key issues: They gave in and allowed the proceedings to be televised – the very first time that committee proceedings were televised; they twice extended the length of the committee’s deadline; and they accepted several important amendments proposed by the opposition. The opposition Tories and NDP were willing to make deals on certain key issues rather than simply try to oppose and obstruct the government’s work on the committee.

Ultimately, by working with a sometimes willing opposition and making compromises, the Liberals were able to score a huge victory with patriation and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Whether the Special Committee on Electoral Reform will be able to similarly succeed remains to be seen.

Adam Dodek is a member of the University of Ottawa’s Public Law Group. He is writing a book about the Special Joint Committee on the Constitution, 1980-81.

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